Comcast Feels the Heat Over Web Blocking

Two weeks after Comcast was discovered to be blocking peer-to-peer web traffic on its network, a coalition of public interest groups and Internet scholars from Yale, Harvard and Stanford began pressing the Federal Communications Commission for "urgent action to stop violations of consumers' right to access the software and content of their choice."

The media advocacy group Free Press Detroit Free Press reports that the coalition has filed a "Petition for Declaratory Ruling" asking for the F.C.C.'s official response to Comcast's actions, as well a complaint against Comcast itself.

A Comcast executive denied that the company blocks any Web site or online service, and said no one had ever proven it has.

The new pressure on the F.C.C. comes after the Associated Press conducted several tests in major cities and concluded that Comcast appeared to be blocking peer-to-peer filesharing. The news service said its tests demonstrated "the most drastic example yet of data discrimination by a U.S. Internet service provider."

Comcast was found to be blocking legal peer-to-peer file-sharing networks, including BitTorrent and Gnutella, as well as other applications. Comcast claimed its actions amounted to "reasonable network management."

"Comcast's defense is bogus," Ben Scott, policy director of Free Press said in a statement. "The F.C.C. needs to take immediate action to put an end to this harmful practice. Comcast's blatant and deceptive BitTorrent blocking is exactly the type of problem advocates warned would occur without Net Neutrality laws. Our message to both the F.C.C. and Congress is simple: We told you so, now do something about it."

The petitioners are hoping that the F.C.C. will agree that blocking legal peer-to-peer traffic violates the agency's 2005 "Internet Policy Statement," which enumerated four principles that are supposed to guarantee competition among providers and unfettered access to all legal content, applications and services.

"Last year, F.C.C. Chairman Kevin Martin and opponents of Net Neutrality told Congress that the F.C.C. has all the authority it needs to prevent exactly this sort of customer abuse by a major provider," Harold Feld, senior vice president of Media Access Project, said in a statement. "Now we come to the acid test. Will the F.C.C., which vowed to protect our freedom to run the applications of our choice, stand up for citizens in the face of Comcast?"

Net Neutrality advocates argue that the growth and success of the Internet is a direct result of its open, non-discriminatory nature.

"The Commission has a choice," added Gigi B. Sohn, president and co-founder of Public Knowledge. "It can either protect consumers from the abuses of telephone and cable companies, or it can walk away and let the telephone and cable companies chip away at the free and open Internet little by little until they can control consumer use of the network as they please. We will see how serious the Commission is about preserving the neutral, non-discriminatory Internet that encourages innovation without permission."

To many Net Neutrality advocates, Comcast actions portend a future in which the major broadband providers act as gatekeepers for the Internet, picking and choosing what content is allowed on their networks.

"Nobody gave Comcast the right to be an Internet gatekeeper," Marvin Ammori, Free Press's general counsel and co-author of the complaint, said in a statement. "And there is nothing reasonable about telling users which Internet services they can and can't use."

David L. Cohen, an executive vice president of Comcast, denied the fundamental claim that it was blocking any Internet traffic, for any reason.

"Comcast does not, has not, and will not block any Web sites or online applications, including peer-to-peer services, and no one has demonstrated otherwise," he said in an email statement to Portfolio.com. " We engage in reasonable network management to provide all of our customers with a good Internet experience, and we do so consistently with F.C.C. policy."

He said the commission stated in 2005 that efforts to encourage broadband use and preserve the nature of the Internet are subject to "reasonable network management."

by Sam Gustin